Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Wenceslao: Political tug-of-war in Tudela By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
DEMETRIO "Mano Demet" Granada and my father Tiyong (now deceased) were childhood friends. I could not recall now the particular stories my father recounted when I was a kid about that friendship. No Demet was an important guest when I married Edizza eight years ago though he preferred, like he always does, to be in the background.
When I visited No Demet in his house in Mandaue City last week of December, I wasn't able to stay long because he had this meeting with a fifth district official. "Ngano gud nga ikaw may estoryahon anang mga pulitiko nga dili na man ka mayor?" I asked him, half joking, of course. "Dili, writ of execution na lay gihuwat," he answered.
It turned out No Demet was not waiting in vain. Danao City Regional Trial Court Judge Edito Enemecio has issued an order dated Jan. 9, 2007 for Granada's immediate installation as mayor of Tudela town after he posts a bond of P100,000. Mayor Rogelio Baquerfo, however, has refused to step down pushing Tudela town into the limelight.
Tudela, one of the four towns in the Camotes group of islands in the fifth district, is a fifth class municipality, meaning it is small. Population-wise, the town is only a bit bigger than some of Cebu City's major barangays. It is not often, therefore, that the town, or its politicians, lands in the front pages of newspapers or become subject of radio talk.
There are some distinctions, however, that the town owns. Tudela, where my father's "pusod" was buried (as our elders would say), was the only place in Camotes that challenged the ascendancy of the Durano clan in the fifth district. One can partly credit that to No Demet, who returned to Tudela in the middle '80s to lead the "struggle" there.
When I went to the Capitol last week, an employee I talked with referred to No Demet as "mora man sad na siyag hero sa Tudela, no?" The word hero was actually the last thing I would pick up from a box of words in describing No Demet---until I heard that employee talk. Indeed, time and distance muddle our impression of people's feats.
No Demet led Cory Aquino's yellow brigade in Tudela when the Duranos were allied with then dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Many of our relatives there joined him in the effort to protect Cory's votes in the 1984 presidential polls, although Cory would end up losing to Marcos in a dubious nationwide count. People Power 1 toppled Marcos, though.
No Demet would be appointed OIC mayor and later went on to win the elections to start a long hold on that post, preserving Tudela's independence from the Duranos for sometime. He would gravitate to the Osmeñas for political survival (the other Camotes mayors were aligned with the Duranos). But that setup would change in recent years.
I won't dare assess No Demet's governance, especially in the delivery of public services and in prodding economic growth. That is better left to town residents. What I can just say is that since the court has declared him winner in a recount, Baquerfo has no other recourse but to back off in the meantime to preserve the peace in the town.
Reducing the implementation of the court's order into a confrontation between supporters won't go anywhere. Baquerfo should seek remedies in the court instead.
